Colette D'Arville

Colette D'Arville, born Marie Marthe Cescosse in 1902 in the French Basque Country to Emile and Jeanne Cescosse, was a French soprano and musical theatre actress whose career spanned opera, musical theatre, film, and radio across multiple countries from the 1920s through the 1940s. She died in New York City on 16 December 1944 at the age of 42.

Before adopting the name by which she became known, D'Arville performed under the stage name Colette Etchery, spending five years from 1922 to 1927 at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris, where she built a reputation as a comedienne and soprano in French operetta. Her vocal training began in Paris under a teacher named Berton, and she later studied with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City.

D'Arville's American career began in 1928 when talent agents Edward S. Keller and Sam Shannon of the K-A-O agency booked her on the American vaudeville circuit, at which point she took the stage name Colette D'Arville. Her American theatrical debut came in the role of Claudette Pernier in Here's Howe, a musical with music by Roger Wolfe Kahn and Joseph Meyer and lyrics by Irving Caesar. The production opened for tryout performances at the Shubert Theatre in Boston on 23 April 1928, before moving to Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre on 1 May 1928. Produced by Alex. A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley with choreography by Sammy Lee, the show ran until 20 June 1928. Following its close, D'Arville took on the role of Trini in the national tour of Dave Stamper's musical Take the Air, which launched in August 1928. Later that year she was contracted as a singer on WHN radio in New York City and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to film musical shorts in Hollywood.

Throughout the 1930s, D'Arville maintained a presence at the Opéra-Comique in Paris while simultaneously pursuing an active career in the United States. She became particularly associated with the title role in Bizet's Carmen, performing it for the first time in the United States at the Crescent Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey in 1931, and again on tour with the Cosmopolitan Grand Opera Company in 1932. That tour brought her to the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. in January 1932. Also in 1931, she made her New York recital debut at Town Hall. The following year she gave a recital at the New York Biltmore Hotel featuring works by Robert Schumann and Manuel de Falla, and appeared in the Egyptian film Sons of Aristocrats, her debut in Egyptian cinema. She also recorded radio commercials for Linit Bath Soaps in 1932. In 1937, she portrayed Carmen at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

D'Arville's film work included a starring role opposite Carlos Gardel in the 1935 Paramount Pictures musical film Tango Bar, directed by John Reinhardt, in which she played the character Chichita. That same year she was a member of WOR's Light Opera Troupe, performing operettas and musical theatre material on radio. In 1936 she was among the founding members of the American Guild of Musical Artists, and that year she performed in recitals alongside Metropolitan Opera tenor Giovanni Martinelli. In 1939 she appeared as a featured performer in a concert organized by composer Deems Taylor at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, titled "A Spring in Old Vienna."

D'Arville was romantically involved with both Martinelli and Deems Taylor during the 1930s and 1940s. She met Taylor in 1934, and he traveled with her to the Basque Country in 1936, expressing in a private letter to his former wife Mary Kennedy his intention to propose marriage to her. Martinelli and D'Arville's relationship was widely known in operatic circles; soprano Rosa Ponselle later commented in an interview that the affair had affected Martinelli's singing and personal life during that period.

When the German Army occupied Paris in June 1940, D'Arville was in the city visiting family. She succeeded in reaching unoccupied territory and eventually returned to New York City. In April 1942 she portrayed the title role in Massenet's Le jongleur de Notre-Dame with the Newark Civic Grand Opera. In 1943 she performed in United Service Organizations camp shows at Camp Kilmer alongside Martinelli, and also volunteered at the American Theatre Wing's Stage Door Canteen. D'Arville died in New York City in December 1944. She had one son, Gaston Etienne Cescosse, born out of wedlock.